


I don't sleep, I dream....

by ThatwasJustaDream



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 18:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a Weekend Challenge on the 1_million_words community on LiveJournal. The prompt was: <i>With a fandom or pairing in mind and a rough idea of where you might like to go, set your music player to random, or choose your favorite I'm not at work playlist to random through, and MAKE WORDS!</i>.  My premise: Jack Harkness doesn't sleep. Sometimes that means he's on his own, and sometimes  he has company.  Just five random, AUish, comment length fics based on the songs that iTunes tossed my way.....</p>
            </blockquote>





	I don't sleep, I dream....

**Piggies ~ The Beatles**

“Not enough to grab a drink any old where, huh? Had to go all posh on me.” 

Owen sneered at the bar in general – its mahogany walls, shelves full of old tomes, the twenty or so well-heeled humans in the room. The men were in suits, the women in politely corporate pumps at 10:00 p.m. 

“Had a yen for a martini.” Jack spun his empty glass by the stem, eyes searching for a waiter. “Or two. They make the finest kind here. Besides, we rake in the bucks, so what’s your problem with this place?”

“Not about money,” Owen bit out the words, his eyes straying toward one of the female execs who was sitting at the bar alone. “You wouldn’t get it, being American. They’re elitists, down to a man. And like the song says, ‘what they need’s a damn good whacking.’”

Then Owen was gone, headed her way, and Jack wondered whether she offended Owen slightly less than the rest, or if she simply looked like a fine option for taking the day out on. He decided to let the thought go. 

“Another?” the extraordinarily beautiful young waiter asked when he arrived.

“Yes, please,” Jack started to hand his glass to him, yanked it back. “Unless maybe you’re off soon?” 

~~~~~~~~~~

**She’s Leaving Home ~ The Beatles**

“I don’t get why you’d _do_ it? _Or_ put me in that position?”

Jack sat in a chair near Toshiko, watching her stare tearfully at the small box of mementos. 

“I wasn’t here to steal secrets, I swear. Not like… you know…” she picked up the paperweight-slash-alien-claw, waved the handful of Polaroids they’d taken one slow day, goofing off. “I just wanted…a few things to remember it all by.”

“I know you weren’t stealing. But I’m still waiting. ‘Cause that’s not an answer. Why were you going to run, Tosh?”

“I’ve always known I would never have what other people have. Ever since I was a girl, really. I manage it… the impact that has. But it’s always there. And lately it’s been brutal. More than I can take.”

Jack wheeled his chair in to pull her close. 

“You can tell me anything, you know that? And no one else will ever hear it.”

“I know. But… no. Thanks. I can’t.” She pulled back a touch to look into his face then set her head on his shoulder again. 

“Okay. Then… how about I go make us coffee, and you stay and we’ll talk. About whatever.”

She sat back with a weak smile and a nod. Jack was halfway to the kitchen when he heard her.

“Would you really… if I ran away… really find me and retcon me?”

“Wouldn’t have a choice,” Jack said. “So, yes.”

“But you told me five years. You asked me to give you five years,” She looked up at where he was standing, hands in pockets, smiling like ‘you got me’. “And it will be, five years, next week. Why retcon me when you told me I could leave of my own free will in what amounts to a matter of days?”

“I lied. To get you to come with me,” Jack said. “It was always going to be forever.”

“Huh,” he heard her say as he went for their drinks. “That’s _something_ , isn’t it? Something I do have that's mine ….and forever.”

~~~~~~~~~

**Hello, It’s Me ~ Todd Rundgren**

“It’s one a.m.” 

Jack’s voice through the phone sounded sleepy, which was absurd because the man didn’t sleep. Maybe he went into a kind of a trance to kill the boredom, Gwen thought.

“You gave me a funny look. When you saw my ring. When I told you I’m marrying Rhys.”

Rhys, who was sleeping, his back to her and snoring lightly at the moment. He slept like death. She could rant all she wanted at Jack without disturbing him.

“I did?”

“Yes, you did, and y’know you did. It’s that same, coy little ‘why him not me’ look you give me every day, just about. And for your information I’m marrying him because he’s good and sweet and I love him and he’ll always, always _be_ there for….”

“Do you want to come over and get it out of both of our systems?”

“Bastard,” she whisper-shouted. “Why would you think I’d ever…”

“Oh, we both know I have _several_ reasons to think you _might ever_. Number one in relevance now is that _you’re_ the one calling at zero-dark-hundred with _me_ on the brain.”

There was a moment of complete silence over the line.

“See you in twenty?” Jack asked.

She’d hung up, and she hadn’t said yes but she hadn’t said no. 

Jack smiled at the phone and set it down, eyes on the ceiling, waiting for the sounds of the doors opening.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

**World Leader, Pretend ~ R.E.M.**

“Let me get this straight,” Jack kissed his way down Ianto’s neck and shoulder, then over that broad, warm chest with just the right ratio of fuzz to sweet, bare skin. “You’re pissed because I referred to us in public in a way that suggested we’re maybe a couple?”

“Never said it was more than .. dabbling. And it’s _my_ call, it’s my….” 

They’d already each exploded twice for the other but Ianto still hissed when Jack worried a nipple with his teeth.

“… it’s _me_ who’s got more skin in the game.”

“That’s an Americanism, my friend,” Jack made his way back north. “And looking around, I’d say we’ve both pretty much got all of our skin in the game.”

“It was presumptuous of you. I’ll say when I’m good with it. It’s my call not….”

“King of your castle, huh?”

“Exactly.”

“You do get the fallacy of making yourself safer by pushing me away? Sure, you’re safer. But you’re out there all on your little lonesome.”

“Stop trying to run rings around me logically,” Ianto said, grudging acknowledgment back there somewhere in his voice.

“Run? Pretty sure I could walk and still…. Ow! Did you seriously just slap my ass?”

“Yes. What, exactly, are you going to do about it?” Ianto asked, and it was off to the races again.

~~~~~

**Bang and Blame ~ R.E.M.**

There are nights when memories are the only company he has.

_“If you could see yourself, now, baby… it’s not my fault. You used to be so in control….”_

Jack sits on a park bench, taking a break in a walk that might get him to dawn, listening to music set politely low slipping out of a nearby apartment window.

_“Your secret life of indiscreet discretions….”_

He pictures them all: So many faces, the arms that have held him, bodies he’s taken shelter in or under. All gone. Well, all gone except for the one he turns to lately. He wonders if he’ll get to watch him grow old? If it’ll be his fault (again) if he doesn’t.

_“Stop laying blame… you know that’s not my thing.”_

He knows his utter lack of possessiveness is what makes him attractive to them. He’s so very easy… and such a challenge. They have zero idea how much they captivate him. Or how long they linger.

_“You kiss on me... tug on me... rub on me... jump on me. You bang on me... beat on me... hit on me... let go on me. You let go on me."_

You can kill an entire night walking around Cardiff, but it’s a very long night.


End file.
